PLD feels underwhelming lately

[SeraviEdalborez]

Blocking with the Shield is a huge deal.

I was reaching for things that a "perfect" PLD could possibly be doing over a "good" one (poorly, it seems). Shield blocking isn't something influenced by skill.

[kukurumei]

Agreed, the debate of who is better, as I said, is mute. Running PLD/WAR in a lot of end game content is preferred and really works out well as they compliment eachother. A times I tend to run into other tanks saying "I'm MT" be it PLD or WAR. I totally don't mind being OT if the situation calls for it. At times PLD is better OT, others War is better OT.

Not really. That's a load of BS for theory land. SE creates content we strategize to beat. The more unforgiving they are the more the difference grows. It's not mute, it's a loud and clear point for anyone who is running hard stuff.

SE has not created much War friendly content, that is a pure and utter fact. Going forward in 2.3 we will have to see, but a majority of our content is still 2.0, 2.1, and even a half of 2.2 is meh.

Let's consider tank swapping via stacks. This totally and unarguably favors PLDs. Because the theory is, you get hit stronger over time, then change to a fresh tank.

This means a war who can negate very low amount of damage is put at a disavatange over a PLD who can put his defensive very high. This is made worse when you consider that the "swap" lets the PLD refull his higher-then-war timer CDs giving PLD a higher damage reduction when he needs it.

A tank swap makes a PLD refresh his defensive that reduces more, and have more in general, while a war is left with very little options except to take a good portion of the damage. (the name of the game isn't upkeep but burst damage)

This is made worse if the damage is magical, aka Ultima, ads, primals, etc. Foresight doesn't work, so you are left with a IB and vengence on a crazy timer, where a pld has pretty double that.

[Remn]

imho, PLD shine when you in group with static. as we all know PLD rotation is 1-2-3... so he in the perfect position to oversee the battlefield and keep track and calling out boss ability and DPS can focus on boss (T7 for example. to make sure no1 got caught in shriek, you can do the fight completely silent and rely on 8 people to not making mistake but it a lot easier when you have 1 person coordinate how the fight goes. i.e. leading the group.)

[bokchoykn]

I was reaching for things that a "perfect" PLD could possibly be doing over a "good" one (poorly, it seems). Shield blocking isn't something influenced by skill.

Oh okay. Sorry, I didn't get the context.

Yeah, aside from general tanking mechanics and decision making that applies to both tanking classes, there isn't a whole lot of "play" to Paladin that would differentiate a good Paladin from a bad Paladin.

[kukurumei]

Oh okay. Sorry, I didn't get the context.

Yeah, aside from general tanking mechanics and decision making that applies to both tanking classes, there isn't a whole lot of "play" to Paladin that would differentiate a good Paladin from a bad Paladin.

In general, tanking as a strategy is pretty darn boring in FF14. Most of it is mechanics everyone, not just the tank learns. So going into tank is simply about the right CD at the right time.

So it's more or less a good tank or a bad tank...PLD do have the role of "fancy stuff" such as HG, cover, shield bash, while wars lack the tools defensively, so they are more interactive in the offensive side simply out putting damage.

Let's not generalized too much. A good pld is a very good pld, just like a bad pld is a bad pld. I can give multiple examples of where and how PLDs use their CDs are game changers.

[DrekeLamorte]

Then I tried some primal fights with WAR (only Titan Axe) and didn't feel any difference besides dealing more dmg and not having to spam hate combo.

Some things I'd like to see would be:
a. Shield Bash off GCD, increases enmity and be on a longer cooldown.
b. Enhanced Flash trait should also increase enmity.
c. Shield Swipe should increse enmity and have a small cone.

If you are having enmity gen problems, you're doing something very wrong.

There are times where I can literally not act for 1-2 minutes and not lose hate. For the opening of the fight, enmity gen is mostly your priority, but once you get 1+ minute into the fight, you should be 10s of thousands of points of enmity ahead of 2nd place.

Of course this is assuming the fight does not require tank swapping or enmity resets.

[Giantbane]

How do you define more complex then? If one class has more options than another for the same job, it is more complex in my book (mind you tanking isn't really complex for both jos).

Edit: And Warrior has the more complex ressource mechanic too. In my opinion the Paladin could use some more options while tanking, so that they need to make more decisions.

I don't think Paladin should have more options while tanking. It's a simple tanking option for someone who wants to be entirely focused on the mechanics of the fight and don't have to think about their class at all.

[melflomil]

I started playing warrior. I think a good warrior will always have storms paths up 10% less damage for everyone.

[SeraviEdalborez]

I started playing warrior. I think a good warrior will always have storms paths up 10% less damage for everyone.

Not necessary for every fight. Especially easier ones.

[Jim_Berry]

I retired PLD for WAR, although I was excited for 50 PLD when I got it. You, something as simple as pushing 10k+ HP on WAR for a few seconds makes me smile.

Anywho, yes, I lived PLD for a while. However, that changed when I struggled with speedruns. Normal runs, I'm good. Speed, nope. Also, I never was dps-savvy in MMO's, but tried it here with BRD. WAR makes me feel like I have a tank + DPS combo in one. Not to mention, I made people happy one day when Holmgang saved me from Titan's move where he lifts the ground when I only had 12 HP (Holmgang didn't drop me past 1HP). Thrill of Battle and Inner Beast gave me enough HP recovery to take the auto attacks from Titan (since Holmgang don't work against auto attacks) while the WHM tagged me with Divine Seal, Swiftcast, and Cure II.

We won barely. Other than Hallowed Ground, I honestly don't believe I would have been able to pull that off as PLD.